Yellow Ribbon Program
Post-9/11 GI Bill provision opens the doors of costly private universities to eligible military veterans and their families.
by Andrea Downing Peck
When former U.S. Sen. John Warner was 17 years old, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder inside a drill hall at Great Lakes Naval Training Center with hundreds of other young men who were preparing to serve their country in World War II. On that cold, dark night, Warner made a promise to himself that he fulfilled 63 years later when the Yellow Ribbon GI Education Enhancement Program became law.
As a new recruit, Warner was stunned to see that one-fifth of his contemporaries could neither read nor write. His commitment to supporting veterans’ education programs was born on that night in Illinois.
“That was the demographics of America in those days,” Warner said. “That stayed with me forever because those fellows who couldn’t read and write were very quickly trained in a matter of 60 days or less and shipped out to the war fronts. I’m not suggesting they were any less of a Sailor than I was or the others were, but today’s military has no place for someone who can’t read and write. I pledged to myself that night to do whatever I can for the rest of my life to help educate veterans.”
Warner Keeps His Pledge
In 2008, Warner joined with fellow senators Jim Webb of Virginia, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey to orchestrate passage of the Post-9/11 Veterans Education Assistance Act of 2008, known more succinctly as the Post-9/11 GI Bill. The bill radically enhances veterans’ education benefits and ensures through the Yellow Ribbon Program that eligible veterans will receive financial assistance to attend more costly private universities.
The Post-9/11 GI Bill’s basic benefit package pays for tuition and fees up to a state’s highest in-state undergraduate tuition at a public university. It also provides a monthly housing stipend equal to the Basic Allowance for Housing for an E-5 with dependents in the school’s ZIP code, and grants up to a $1,000 allowance for books and supplies. The benefit is payable for up to 36 months.
Veterans who qualify for the Post-9/11 GI Bill at the maximum benefit rate are eligible for the Yellow Ribbon Program, as are military dependents who receive their education benefits through the new GI Bill’s transferability provision.
The Yellow Ribbon Program allows private colleges to enter into a cost-sharing agreement with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to offset tuition expenses that exceed the standard VA reimbursement level in their state. The VA will match up to 50 percent of the unmet charges, with the school contributing an equal amount. Public institutions also can sign Yellow Ribbon agreements to offset higher tuition costs for out-of-state students.
Colleges must determine the maximum number of students who will receive funds under the program, and eligible students must be selected on a first-come, first-served basis. Once selected for the Yellow Ribbon Program, a student continues to receive funding as long as they maintain satisfactory academic progress and have GI Bill entitlement.
Prestigious Universites Respond
More than 1,100 private institutions of higher learning are participating in the Yellow Ribbon Program for the 2009-2010 academic year. The list is a Who’s Who of undergraduate and graduate programs, with seven of the Ivy League universities – Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania and Yale – represented, as well as other top-dollar institutions such as George Washington University, Boston College, Washington and Lee University, Stanford University, College of William & Mary, and Ohio Wesleyan University.
Warner, who used the original GI Bill to attend Washington and Lee University and the University of Virginia Law School, spent much of his five terms in the Senate championing improvements to the GI Bill so that cost would no longer keep today’s veterans from attending some of the nation’s most prestigious universities. The Post-9/11 GI Bill, he believes, meets that challenge.
“We had a heck of a time getting it through Congress,” Warner said. “The Bush administration was totally against the bill. The Pentagon was against the bill. They said the thing was too damn expensive. But we won, and the rest is history.”
Since President Bush signed the Post-9/11 GI Bill into law in June 2008, the VA and the nation’s colleges have had to work quickly to bring the multifaceted program up to speed by Aug. 1, 2009, when the VA began processing payments for the 2009-2010 academic year. The complex funding system outlined under the Yellow Ribbon Program, where payments vary based on the difference in each state’s highest resident, undergraduate public university charges and the dollar-for-dollar matching agreements signed by individual colleges, created sizeable obstacles that had to be overcome.
Flexibility for Veterans
Because many colleges have entered into multiple Yellow Ribbon agreements covering both the undergraduate and graduate programs, the number of signed Yellow Ribbon Program agreements exceeds 1,200. Keith Wilson, director of education service at the VA, said the program appears to be meeting its goal of providing veterans with flexibility in making their college selection.
“If you are looking at it from the perspective of it’s a new program that is less than a year into existence and schools have had a total of several months during the spring to make decisions on whether they want to participate, I would agree it is a strong response.”
Curtis Rodgers, dean of enrollment management for Columbia University’s School of General Studies, said there never was any doubt that Columbia would participate in the Yellow Ribbon Program at the highest level possible.
“We very much see this as a continuation of our strong tradition and history working with veterans and having veterans enrolled in the undergraduate population here at Columbia,” Rodgers said. “In many ways, I see this as a renaissance for the School of General Studies because the Post-9/11 GI Bill is so significant in terms of the level of funding and benefits that it affords veterans in thinking through their educational opportunities.”
Under the university’s Yellow Ribbon agreement, Columbia will waive $5,100 in tuition for up to 150 veterans – or dependents of veterans who receive transferred entitlements – attending the School of General Studies. The VA will match the school’s $5,100 tuition waiver. Combine the Yellow Ribbon program’s benefits with the Post-9/11 GI Bill’s maximum reimbursement rate for New York (estimated to be $970 per credit hour, with an additional payment of up to $3,457 in fees) and an eligible veteran could attend the School of General Studies at essentially no cost. Fifteen of Columbia University’s professional schools and colleges have signed Yellow Ribbon agreements, providing a range of matching funds.
Do You Qualify?
To qualify for the Yellow Ribbon Program, a veteran must be entitled to 100 percent of the Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits, which means they must have served on active duty for an aggregate period of at least 36 months since Sept. 10, 2001, or were honorably discharged from active duty for a service connected disability and served 30 continuous days after Sept. 10, 2001, or are a dependent eligible for Transfer of Entitlement.
To know how much money you may qualify for under the Yellow Ribbon Program, first determine the maximum in-state tuition and fees payable to your university under the Post-9/11 GI Bill. That information is found on the VA Web site at www.gibill.va.gov/GI_Bill_Info/CH33/Tuition_and_fees.htm.
Next, multiply the number of credits you are taking in a semester by the “Maximum Charge Per Credit Hour” listed on the Web site. Compare that amount to your tuition for the same number of credits.
If your school participates in the Yellow Ribbon Program, all or a portion of any remaining balance may be covered. A list of colleges enrolled in the program for the 2009-2010 academic year is at www.gibill.va.gov/GI_Bill_Info/CH33/YRP/YRP_List.htm.
In some states, such as Texas, public institution costs are so high that fewer private colleges need a Yellow Ribbon agreement to bridge a tuition gap. However, in California, which does not charge resident undergraduate tuition, the reimbursement rate per credit hour is zero, with fees per term reimbursed at a maximum of $6,587.
Bridging the Tuition Gap
Robert Morris University, a private institution of 5,000 students in Western Pennsylvania, was one of the first universities to embrace the Yellow Ribbon Program. RMU has created a Military Service Award that will cover the gap between the university’s tuition and the funding provided under the Post-9/11 GI Bill for qualified veterans. In addition, veterans with less than three years of Post-9/11 service are urged to apply for other federal and RMU benefits.
Retired Air National Guard Brig. Gen. Dan Rota, who is directing the university’s new Veterans Education and Training Services Center, said the university has a longstanding commitment to the military community and already enrolls more than 130 veterans in its undergraduate and graduate programs. Rota said veterans become leaders on campus.
“Speaking as a college professor, in the 30 years that I taught, I never had a problem with a military person,” Rota said. “They just have a work ethic that you can’t believe and they spread that work ethic. Even without knowing it, they are role models for traditional undergraduate students.”
Schools such as Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, do not expect a large influx of veterans through the Yellow Ribbon Program, but believe the program may open the doors of the private, liberal arts campus to more children of veterans.
“There will be some veterans who probably would not choose Ohio Wesleyan simply because most of our students are traditionally aged students – 18 or 19 years old,” said Lee Harrell, assistant vice president for admission and financial aid. “The children of veterans certainly would. If they are looking to attend OWU, it would help them cover their costs.”
With tuition of more than $34,000 per year, Ohio Wesleyan awards scholarships or grants to 95 percent of its 1,850 students.
“I’m excited about this program,” Harrell said, “because in financial aid we look for any tool we can to help students financially. If there is a good program out there for us to participate in that will help students financially, we’re certainly happy to help out.”
The original GI Bill in 1944 provided educational funding to more than 7.8 million returning World War II veterans.
While the Post- 9/11 GI Bill will be serving a smaller veteran population, Wilson says, its importance to this nation’s current generation of veterans is no less significant.
“Numbers wise you can’t compare the two because it is apples and oranges,” Wilson said. “But in terms of social contract, this nation as a whole is saying we have the same level of commitment to today’s veterans as our fathers and grandfathers had to their veterans after World War II. That is the significant message.”